Such machines are known from a wide variety of fields. They are used in the beverage industry, for example, to align products for further processing. Further processing might include, for example, a check for certain features or labeling of the articles. In the case of labeling, if the containers are handled several times, alignment and realignment may be necessary even during the processing operation. This is accomplished with turntables mounted in the rotating table of the machine so that the articles to be processed are placed on this turntable. These turntables are brought into the respective position by control units and drive units.
Such a control unit may be a self-contained control cam, for example, with which roller levers act on the turntables either directly (DE-AS 1 486 138) or indirectly (DE-AS 1 258 784). There are known control devices and positioning devices with which gear wheels mounted on the side of the turntables facing away from the product engage with revolving toothed belts. The rotational movements to be generated with such equipment are used mainly in all-round labeling. If labeling machines must be adjusted quickly to different articles to be labeled, the control and positioning devices mentioned above rapidly reach their limits.
For such cases, there are already approaches which, when implemented, allow a wide variety of rotational movements to be implemented. Such an approach is disclosed in DE 31 37 201 A1, where an electric stepping motor is connected to each turntable for controlling same, said stepping motor supplying said turntable with control pulses as a function of the movement ratios of the rotating table. When switching to different containers to be labeled, it is thus no longer necessary to switch fittings that are involved in the rotational movement. One need only update the rotational and control program. DE 33 08 934 C1 also discloses a combination of a mechanical and a motor turntable drive.
However, with all the embodiments mentioned above, transmission elements that step down the rotational speed are needed between the turntable and the object generating the energy for rotation of the article to be aligned and/or equipped. With these transmission elements such as gears, shafts, toothed belts, etc., the required torque for rapid rotation of the articles to be aligned and/or equipped can be applied with traditional motors even at a high machine speed. However, such transmission element are subject to high wear, require regular maintenance and/or replacement and cause inaccuracies due to play.